The Russian invasion of Ukraine has understandably impacted global markets. Due to the uncertain nature of the fast-evolving situation, global markets initially reacted with many stocks moving into the red and the oil price pushing beyond the $100 milestone as supply concerns intensified.

Markets reacted accordingly on the last trading day of the month following news that Vladimir Putin placed the nuclear deterrent on high alert the previous day. A raft of economic sanctions announced by Western leaders against Russia were imposed, included a move designed to cut off Moscow’s major financial institutions from Western markets. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the sanctions “demonstrate our steadfast resolve in imposing the highest costs on Russia and to cut her off from the international financial system so long as this conflict persists.”

At the end of February, major global markets largely closed in negative territory as investors pensively monitored developments. In the UK, the FTSE 100 closed the month down 0.08% on 7,458.25, the FTSE 250 and AIM also both lost ground to close the month on 21,081.05 and 1,040.36, losses of 3.86% and 4.99% respectively.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 ended the month on 26,526.82, down 1.72%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 closed February down 6.00% on 3,924.23. Stateside the Dow Jones closed February down 3.53%, while the NASDAQ closed down 3.43%.

On the foreign exchanges, sterling closed the month at $1.34 against the US dollar. The euro closed at €1.19 against sterling and at $1.12 against the US dollar.

The oil price moderated at month-end with Brent Crude closing the month trading at around $98 a barrel, a gain of over 9%. Investors flocked to gold, which is currently trading at around $1,903 a troy ounce, a gain of over 6% on the month.